Something sinister behind campaign to save TSN 690

It’s pretty impressive that the people behind the campaign to save TSN 690 was able to amass 15,000 signatures to a petition and endless letters to the CRTC, as Stu Cowan wrote in his blog.

And while I am in favour of keeping Montreal’s all-sports radio station, the campaign never mentions that the station itself is not in jeopardy of closing.

In fact, once again TSN 690 is being used by Bell as a bargaining chip in its purchase of Astral. The purchase would put Bell over the number of English-language stations it is permitted to own in any market (the maximum is three, and Astral owns CJAD, CHOM and Virgin 96). Make no mistake, Bell doesn’t really care about the well-being of the tiny radio station. The last time it proposed to buy Astral, it planned to kill TSN and turn it into a French-only sports station. That prompted the small, but loyal fan-base of TSN 690 to rally against the sale.

This time, Bell is banking on turning the outrage it caused last year into support for its second purchase proposal.

The thing that is missing from all this, however, is that Bell’s purchase of Astral last year was soundly rejected by the CRTC, and not just because the company had a bad public image, but because the regulator thought it was bad for Canada for so many media outlets to be concentrated in the hands of one company. It seems unlikely a second attempt will be met with any different result.

Secondly, even if the CRTC approves the Astral takeover, that wouldn’t mean the end of TSN, it would just mean Bell would have to choose to sell one of its radio holdings. It could actually be good for the station to be in the hands of a different owner that might care more about the cause. In that case, the Save TSN 690 campaign would actually go against the best interests of the radio station.

There is something very cynical about asking fans to support your request for ownership of nearly all of Montreal’s English-language radio stations (except 92.5 The Beat). While it’s great TSN fans have such passion for their radio station, they should be cautious about helping a mega-corporation that was ready to callously toss the station aside just a few months ago.

UPDATE: Wayne Bews, the General Manager of TSN Radio 690 responded to this blog post. I attach an except of that critique below. (Note: it may be confusing because I originally omitted the first paragraph, since I had corrected my error. TSN still insisted the letter be copied in full)

While misleading and misinformed, Jason Magder’s article is also incorrect on several fronts.

It is simply not true that saving TSN Radio 690 would “double the number of English-language stations [Bell Media] is permitted to own in any market”, and it is also not true that Astral already has an exception. In the Montreal market, the CRTC’s common ownership policy for radio permits any operator to own four French stations (two FM/two AM) and three English stations (two on any one band), to which Astral complies. The request for an exception to the policy is for a united Astral and Bell Media to operate one additional English station, TSN Radio 690 – clearly not “double the number.”

Mr. Magder neglects to mention that there is already a precedent for the type of request that Astral and Bell Media are making. Cogeco was granted such an exception in 2010 when it bought Corus’s Quebec radio stations, giving them three French FM stations in the lucrative French-language radio market – or one more than what is generally permitted under the CRTC policy.

The fact that TSN Radio 690 has not been able to earn a positive return on investment to date is a very real indication of the future of the station, should it be required to be sold. While Mr. Magder feels a different owner might “care more about the cause” of sport talk radio in Montreal, the unfortunate reality is it would be very difficult for a standalone, all-sports station to survive in this market. Almost certainly, the sale of TSN Radio 690 to a third party would trigger a format change, much like Cogego did in 2011 when it converted CKAC 730’s sports radio format to an all-traffic station.

That’s why Astral and Bell Media have committed to maintain the English-language sports talk format of TSN Radio 690 by condition of licence. Bell Media very much cares about the sports radio, as evidenced by our commitment to the format in other communities across the country.

Unfortunately, Mr. Madger, there is in fact a very real jeopardy of the station closing. And that’s why 15,000 listeners got engaged to save TSN Radio 690.

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